Kotonoha Katsura
Kotonoha Katsura (桂 言葉/かつら　ことのは) is one of the two main heroines of School Days and in nearly all mediums of the series, she starts out as Makoto Ito's girlfriend after Sekai Saionji got them together. Kotonoha is a mild-mannered, polite, gorgeous and well-endowed girl whom Makoto initially has a crush on. She reciprocates his feelings and their relationship starts. Being very reserved, it takes quite an effort for her to become comfortable with him, but by then depending on the circumstances, her personality develops differently. Being raised in a wealthy family, she has a slim social life. It is made even worse by all the girls being jealous of her beauty and all the boys being afraid of her for the same reason. Because all the girls shun her and all the boys are afraid of of her, she has had an almost non-existent social life. Because many boys are constantly talking about her some girls misinterpret this to mean Kotonoha's promiscuous which the girls build on with increasingly false rumors which affects her already slim social life negatively. She lives with her parents and little sister in a very large house, with her family being very wealthy and despite them working all the time she still enjoys a close relationship with them. She is a persuable heroine in Summer/Shiny Days and in Cross Days appears as a secondary but important character. Appearance Kotonoha Katsura is a beautiful girl, with dark violet eyes and the similar color continues into her dark silky straight hair that floats down almost all the way past her hips. More than just a beautiful face, her body is very pale, slender and matured for her age. One of her most significant physical features is her extremely busty chest, second only to her mother, Manami Katsura, throughout the series. Her appearance and manner of dress which is usually modest, has varied slightly throughout the games. Because of her gorgeous body, almost all girls (except Sekai) think negatively of her, due to jealousy, and think of her as promiscuous and is taking money from Makoto to go on dates. Even Nanami Kanroji, who is very mature, thinks negatively of her and treats her badly. Personality Generally, Kotonoha Katsura is an intelligent, bookish, well-educated, girly, polite and gentle young lady with a reserved character. She is so reserved, in fact, there is no mention she has a single friend before she was acquainted with Sekai and Makoto. Having almost no social life, she becomes incredibly dependent and devoted to Makoto. But this kind of firmness can lead to her to drastic repercussions. If she feels Makoto is leaving her and cannot be won back, such tremendous sorrow and desperation will drive her berserk or "yandere" (expressed by her lusterless eyes), render her to commit suicide, or to murder those she believes is stealing Makoto away from her. Her attachment to Makoto is so great that she refuses to accept that he would ever break up with her. Perhaps linked to her possible murderous side, if Makoto invites her to watch a horror movie, she admits she's a fan of horror and splatter movies but usually keeps quite about it. Although the reason is not specified, Kotonoha, being very girly and prudish, is afraid of being around guys, especially scared by being touched by the opposite gender, thus making for some awkward moments between her and Makoto at the beginning of their relationship. The situation worsen with Makoto constantly demands excessive physical contact and gets turned down. Finally, Kotonoha acknowledges fulfilling Makoto's sexual appetite is vital in tightening their relationship. Kotonoha will get over her psychological block and offers her gorgeous body to Makoto in order to lock his heart with her, even proactively, to drive her rivals away. After this, she suddenly gains the ability to manipulate situations far greater than Sekai, whenever she decides to win back Makoto from Sekai, for example in the Bavarois and Lust ending. How Kotonoha's personality develops is almost entirely dependent on how comfortable she is with sexual activity. Initially she's very shy and quiet around Makoto and others. But depending on the route she can go from being a little more comfortable despite her shyness to becoming sort of sex maniac who is not afraid even using own body to win Makoto back. If things are played right, Kotonoha can even develop bisexual feelings towards Sekai, which allows a three-way relationship between them to develop (as is shown in Two Lovers ending or Cross Days manga). However when Kotonoha gets greatly hurt emotionally she goes into Yandere mode. This happens usually when she's abandoned after she sleeps with Makoto, but also occurs when she discovers Makoto cheating on her very late in the game. Like most yanderes, Kotonoha can be cruel as she can be shown to manipulate Makoto and guilt trip him and other girls if Makoto chooses to stay with somebody else. Unlike Sekai she is willing to accept Makoto sleeping around with other girls and having more girlfriends as long as he says with her as well. She also likes to use sex as a weapon if Makoto tries to break things off. She also along with Makoto encouraged Sekai to get an abortion and make out with him to hurt Sekai further and even accuse Yu of stealing Makoto away from him when he wanted to warn her about Makoto's cheating actions. Kotohona will mostly always forgive Makoto but be heartless around anyone else. Even in the manga when Makoto and Sekai break up and ask her for forgiveness she gladly accepts Makoto's apology but wants to kill Sekai right after despite of it. School Days The Visual Novel She's first seen by Makoto taking the same train as him, but meets him after Sekai befriends her and arranges for them to have lunch together. After the first lunch, Makoto works up the courage to ask her out and they set a date. Depending on the player choices her personality can develop drastically different, from being her original sweet and caring self to becoming a horny sex freak to a murderous maniac. See endings for more details. Anime Kotonoha's role in the anime is largely the same, becoming Makoto's girlfriend, only until at the end of episode 3 when Makoto quickly begins to tire of her, as she is unwilling to do anything intimate with him, and gets closer to Sekai. She is later ignored by him and desperately tries to get his attention but is bullied and then supposedly raped by Taisuke. Her Yandere nature soon appears and she pretends to be Makoto's girlfriend and "talks" with him on the phone. He eventually takes her back once he realizes how poorly he treated her and after none of the other girls are willing to talk to him anymore but after a date with her, he breaks up with Sekai when she shows up at his place going as far as encouraging abortion as Sekai is pregnant of Makoto, This ends up sealing his fate as Kotonoha, with the aid of her fathers connections recommends a good doctor for Sekai to get an abortion. Too add insult to injury Kotonoha makes out with Makoto in front of Sekai and lets her know that she doesn't care that Makoto cheated on her and that is now willing to do anything sexual so he stay with her. Later Sekai asked Makoto to meet at his place to discuss about the relationship yet she ended up killing Makoto after seeing the discarded dinner which she prepared the evening before. Sekai sent a text message with few pages of empty lines and a last word "farewell" before stabbing Makoto to death. She then fled the scene, leaving Makoto's lifeless body lying on the floor to be discovered by Kotonoha shortly after. This causes her to go even further insane, and she decapitates Makoto's head and puts it in a bag she brought with her, going on to text Sekai using his cellphone to meet with her on the roof. She speaks to Sekai and reveals his decapitated head before killing her. Finally she sails away on a boat with "Makoto" and whispers now they can finally be together. Manga In the manga version her role is mostly the same, the big difference is that Makoto breaks up with Sekai because he feels guilty about cheating on her and he realizes he loves Kotonoha as he begs her to forgive his actions. However, Kotohona is already insane due to the betrayal and tries to kill Sekai, but accidentally harms Makoto who jumps in front of Sekai. Makoto ends up in the hospital and about a week later she's killed by Sekai, who claims she is far too dangerous and insane (with the implication that she has also gone insane). Before her death, she calls out to Makoto to save her. Summer/Shiny Days Kotonoha along with her mother and sister are all persuable heroines in Summer/Shiny Days with several routes dedicated to each of them separately or together. It's also possible for all female Katsuras to end up in harem relationship with Makoto. Cross Days In the Cross Days Game and manga she is also the target of Yuuki's affection. However she does not see Yuuki as more then just a friend as she is already involved with Makoto. Her yandere side only appears in a few endings, where she will either kill Yuuki in his attempt to help her, or kill his sister, who claims to be Yuu. In the manga version Yuuki attempts to help Kotohona and get closer to her all fail. When Yuuki shows Kotohona that Makoto is cheating on her with Sekai she mistakenly believes Yuuki wants to join them in a four-way and Kotohona reveals to Yuuki that she is in a relationship with both Makoto and Sekai. Shocked by this Yuuki runs away. The next time they meet Kotohona becomes aggressive cruel towards Yuuki as she is led to believe Yuuki only dressed as a girl to steal Makoto away from her. Yuuki tries to explain to her his feelings as well as Makoto's true nature but is shot-down by Kotohona, who is disgusted by him and implies she would kill him if he dares to take Makoto away from her. Relationships See the sub-page Kotonoha Katsura/relationships Endings See Kotonoha Katsura/endings Gallery *Kotonoha Katsura/gallery OVA Valentine Days Kotonoha is one of the major competitors of "who can give the best chocolate to Makoto". She happens to make her chocolate for him with some bizarre and occult materials. Magical Heart Kokoro-chan! Kotonoha appears as "Magical Word (allusion to her given name)" to assist "Magical Heart (allusion to Kokoro's given name)" to fight against Docter S. She is seen to wear a very short kilt and a very close-fitting suit, and wields a Japanese blade. Hobbies Reading As a good student and an intelligent academic girl, Kotonoha loves reading and always stays at the library to read many books for hours, she also seems to visit bookstores often. Whenever Makoto observed her on the train prior to their relationship, she was nearly always reading. Iaido Although bad at sports, Kotonoha is proficient in martial arts, especially Iaido according to her younger sister Kokoro - which explains why she can decimate the rivals of Makoto's love with ease (plus the fact that her handsaw doesn't get blood-stained after slicing Sekai's neck). However, she says that because an athletic tomboy like Otome excels in sports, she admits she cannot stab someone like her to death. She's strong enough to resist Makoto's sexual advances if she wishes to, though Taisuke seems to overpower her easily - possibly because Kotonoha is too panicked by such forcefulness to react properly. Arts Since childhood, Kotonoha has been involved in many activities, such as piano, ballet, Japanese dancing, calligraphy, etc. However, all of these were stopped after she got enrolled to Sakakino Gakuen since her mother allowed her to have more freedom if she can enter this school. Housekeeping Kotonoha is also good at making specialized lemonade for Makoto, which the recipe for is learned from her mother. However, due to her sheltered life, she is not very good at general housekeeping - especially when it comes to culinary arts and knitting - but she works hard to learn for Makoto's sake as she takes their relationship seriously. Reception Kotonoha Katsura receives polarized receptions from audiences, though many people praising and sympathizing with her femininity and loving nature to Makoto Ito, leading them to categorize her as "The Girly Girl" in contrast to "The Tomboy" Sekai, a Yamato Nadeshiko, or the stereotypical love interest. She also becomes one of the trademarks of yandere characters. Kotonoha is the most-liked character among all characters of School Days since its release and keeps her championship title in following works. In Japan, she is titled as "言葉樣/Kotonoha-sama (Kotonoha Her Majesty)" by supporters, while in both China and Taiwan she is addressed as "言葉女神 (Goddess Kotonoha)" by supporters. Due to her reception, Kotonoha Katsura has the most promotion products of all the (female) characters. Trivia *Her family name "Katsura" means "Osmanthus fragrans" or "Cinnamomum cassia" or "Cercidiphyllum japonicum", while her given name "Kotonoha" is a variant of "Kotoba", means "language", "vocabulary", "word" in Japanese. *The origin of her full name is an allusion to Tarō Katsura (桂 太郎),''' a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, politician and three-time Prime Minister of Japan, and they share same birthday. *Kotonoha has the most various collection of clothes throughout the series, many of them are luxurious brands, and due to her striking good looks and extremely luscious body, she also has the most scenes of fan-service. *Kotonoha wears glasses in Cross Days, yet she also has a keen sight for distant events, even capable to identify fast-moving objects far away in School Days and Summer Days. This may indicate that Kotonoha is a bit far-sighted and sometimes requires glasses to properly make out the text in some books. *In a novelization based on the infamous "Bloody Conclusion", written by '''Runa Okada, it is said Kotonoha Katsura's puberty comes very early, even experiences the menarche during fifth grade of elementary school. *She appears to be very bad at cooking, except for her signature lemonade. She is shown to improve throughout the series. *While almost all the characters are somehow related to each other, her family isn't related to anyone (at least nothing is revealed). The only other family with this distinction is, ironically, that of her bully; Otome Katou. *She can become a mother in To My Child and Two Lovers endings with Makoto's children or in the School Days LxH exclusive ending End of the Folly with Taisuke's son. 'Sources' *JIVE Fan Book "Cross Days　まること　桂言葉グラフィティー", ISBN978-4-86176-773-9. *JIVE Fan Book "Cross Days", ISBN978-4-87376-338-5. *JIVE Fan Book "School Days　公式ビジュアル·アートーワクス", ISBN978-4-86176-263-5. *JIVE Fan Book "SummerDays & SchoolDays Visual Collection", ISBN978-4-86176-330-4. Category:Characters Category:Katsuras Category:Females Category:Older sisters Category:School Days characters Category:Summer Days characters Category:Shiny Days characters Category:Cross Days characters Category:Mothers